Photo: Paul Sableman from St. Louis, MO · CC BY 2.0Bonne Terre has lower household incomes than 92% of U.S. towns
At home: 2% of workers have no commute at all (Missouri 13%). Poverty touches 28.3% of residents (Missouri 12.6%). Bonne Terre grades D for jobs and income and B+ for walkability.
Census ACS 2020–24, Census LEHD 2024, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
Jobs and commuting in Bonne Terre: the gist
Bonne Terre trades workers with the towns around it
Bonne Terre has about as many jobs (1,877) as working residents (1,969), but they are mostly different people: 1,754 residents leave for work each day while 1,662 people come in. Only 11% of the jobs in Bonne Terre are held by people who live here. Day and night ↓
Bonne Terre workers spend longer getting to work
The average trip takes 31 minutes each way, against 24 across Missouri. Over a year that’s about 238 hours of commuting, 54 more than the state’s typical worker. Time on the road ↓
Few Bonne Terre workers work from home
Only 2% of workers work from home, against 13% across Missouri. Almost everyone here travels to a job. Time on the road ↓
Written from the Census figures on this page. Commute flows, distances and jobs are Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs only (the self-employed aren’t counted); commute time and working from home are from the Census American Community Survey.
How Bonne Terre earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Bonne Terre is better than 15% of U.S. towns, #203 of 247 in Missouri. Unemployment holds Bonne Terre’s grade up (4.5%, U.S. 5.2%); the poverty rate pulls it down.
A rough placement. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Bonne Terre could be anywhere from D− to B−.
The workday shuffle in and out of Bonne Terre
On a workday 1,754 residents head out to work, 215 work right here, and 1,662 people come in from elsewhere.
About as many people by day as by night: the people who leave are replaced by the people who come in.
About as many jobs as working residents (0.95 per resident).
Workday population = residents − those who work elsewhere + those who come in (the Census “commuter-adjusted” method). Residents: Census survey; commuters: LEHD 2024, primary jobs.
Bonne Terre’s commute takes about 31 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 9.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Bonne Terre workers work from home, vs 13% across Missouri. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 1,745 commuters (the 2% who work from home are left out). Across Missouri: 86% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
16% of working residents work in Farmington
Where Bonne Terre clocks in
16% of workers
6% of workers
5% of workersLines run between town centers. The top 10 towns each way; “Everywhere else” is the rest, including other states.
A thicker line means more commuters. Switch between where residents work and where the people who work here live.
Inside Bonne Terre’s 1,877 jobs
What kind of work
What it pays
Who does it
Jobs based in Bonne Terre, 2014 → 2024: 1,703 → 1,877. Big swings can come from how a large employer reports its locations, not only from real openings or closings.
Primary jobs covered by unemployment insurance (not the self-employed). Pay is monthly earnings. LEHD 2024.
Here is what they are, next to the jobs Bonne Terre’s own residents hold wherever they work.
How far Bonne Terre’s workers travel
About 31% show a job over 50 miles away. Some of that is real, and some is employers that report every worker at a head office, so a few long commutes are on paper only.
Straight-line distance from each worker’s home block to their main job’s block. LEHD 2024.
Every working resident’s trip, home to work, as the crow flies. Roads add to it, so real drives run longer.
Getting around Bonne Terre: mostly by car
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Bonne Terre is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns, #84 of 247 in Missouri. The street layout scores higher than the way people actually get to work: 2.7% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, below the 3.2% across Missouri.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 1,781 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 16.4% of Bonne Terre households have no vehicle (Missouri 6.6%, U.S. 8.4%). 0% of Bonne Terre’s commuters take a bus or train.
Ranked on jobs and income, Bonne Terre is 2,960th among 3,334 U.S. towns of 4,600 to 9,000
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 7 | Ladue MO | 8,934 | $250K | 1.1% | 1.7% | 5% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 81 | Cottleville MO | 6,717 | $131K | 2.0% | 2.3% | 2% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,958 | Antigo WI | 8,060 | $46K | 19.5% | 4.5% | 38% | D |
| 2,959 | Bret Harte CA | 4,757 | $53K | 42.5% | 10.9% | 2% | D |
| 2,960 | Bonne Terre MO | 6,636 | $46K | 28.3% | 4.5% | 11% | D |
| 2,961 | Carrollton Township MI | 5,585 | $50K | 34.5% | 8.4% | 4% | D |
| 2,962 | Zapata TX | 4,897 | $45K | 32.5% | 2.1% | 14% | D |
| … | |||||||
| 3,334 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 6% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Bonne Terre, the top three, the last and three more from Missouri.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Trips, distances and jobs based here: Census LEHD 2024, primary jobs, where the employer reports them. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Bonne Terre: questions
What is the median household income in Bonne Terre?
$46,179 (±$9,621) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $70,702 across Missouri and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Bonne Terre?
28.3%, against 12.6% across Missouri and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Bonne Terre?
31 minutes each way on average, against 24 across Missouri and 26 nationally. 2% of workers work from home.
Where do people who live in Bonne Terre work?
11% work in town. The top destinations elsewhere are Farmington (16%, 12 mi), St. Louis (6%, 52 mi), Park Hills (5%, 8 mi) (Census LEHD 2024).
Is Bonne Terre walkable?
Bonne Terre is more walkable than 71% of U.S. towns (Walkability B+): an EPA walkability index of 8.7 out of 20, and 3% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Bonne Terre without a car?
0% of commuters take transit and 16% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Bonne Terre, from the people who make the trip.
More of Bonne Terre
Flows, distances and jobs: U.S. Census Bureau, LEHD Origin-Destination Employment Statistics (LODES 8), 2024, primary jobs. Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Distances are straight lines between home and work; real drives run longer. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.